CalTopo is an incredible tool for making maps and courses. I use it all the time to create maps for races as well as courses. The "Pro" plan lets you make 400dpi 12x18in maps with very little fuss. Incredible! I've made Orienter compatible with CalTopo GeoJSON, so you can import and export both ways, depending on how you want to go about it.

Over the weekend, I went out on a 7h mission with a teammate. We had a blast! Unfortunately, Matthias's battery died pretty quickly into the run, so we lost the benefits of personal tracking (there were some hard points that would have been more fun with two devices roaming around). Fortunately, my phone lasted the whole time (started at 95%, ended at about 55%), and I realized I should probably write a bit about how to make batteries last long enough for very large runs.

Orienteer is designed to make it easy to learn orienteering! The quick version is - download the app and find a beginners course close to you, flip on "Learn Mode", and go run around! If you like figuring stuff out on your own, go for it - the rest of this article is a few tips on what to practice, what to pay attention to, and what to think about.

This is a collection of frequently asked questions about Orienteer - if you don't find yours listed, email me at support@orienteer.co and I'll answer your questions and I'll add them to the list below!

So you want to create a course on Orienteer.co? Sweet! Go to the create page on orienteer.co (you may need to sign up or register). Read through some of the details, basically, what the different course difficulties mean, then click “Let’s go!” at the bottom. Double-click to set checkpoints on the map, scroll your mouse to zoom in & out.